TRAVEL & TOURISM
HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]: 

Keynote speaker clinches Stickiest Guru award

THAI establishes three new business units

Austrian Air commences direct Vienna-Phuket

Don Muang may become hub for budget carriers

Bangkok’s budget hotels will raise the bar: THA

Samui makes a splash with Bt.14 billion tourism

Keeping up Khao Lak

TAT to market new tourism clusters

Keynote speaker clinches Stickiest Guru award

The result for the Stickiest Guru is in. Votes for this Sticky Award - the only one not presented on site at the close of IT&CMA and CTW Asia-Pacific held in Pattaya last month, have finally been tallied.

Stickiest award winners.

Sticky Awards are given to exhibitors and sponsors in recognition for their efforts in going the extra mile to wow buyers, travel managers and the media with creative exhibits, marketing and promotions at IT&CMA/CTW.

The award goes to keynote speaker, CEO of Fast Future, Rohit Talwar.

The other awards presented on site were:

* Stickiest Function: Opening Ceremony and Welcome Dinner at Alangkarn by Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau.

* Stickiest Buyer: Catalyst Marketing, Australia’s Peter Cavanagh.
* Stickiest Premium: Taiwan External Trade Development Council.
* Stickiest Promotion: Tourism Australia.
* Stickiest Outfit: Hiroshima Convention & Visitors Bureau’s Noriko Shimoka.
* Stickiest Country Pavilion (Gold): Taiwan.
* Stickiest Country Pavilion (Silver): Hong Kong.
* Stickiest Country Pavilion (Bronze): Singapore.
* Stickiest Corporate Booth (Gold): Etihad Airways.
* Stickiest Corporate Booth (Silver): Dusit Hotels & Resorts.
* Stickiest Corporate Booth (Bronze): Accor Asia Pacific.
(TTG Asia)


THAI establishes three new business units

Thai Airways International has established three new business units, which it fully owns: Thai Airport Management, Thai Aviation Research Institute and Thai Royal Orchid Holiday.

Thai Airport Management will handle domestic and overseas airports, including Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and the upcoming international airport in Krabi, Thailand.

Thai Aviation Research Institute will manage the airline’s human resources, providing professional training.

Thai Royal Orchid Holiday unit will manage the airline’s ticket sales and tour packages.

THAI board of directors chairman, Wanchai Sarathulthat, said: “In today’s era of conducting business, it is vital and necessary to establish subsidiaries, as it allows the company to have increased flexibility and leverage to manage business in the competitive airline industry.”

Meanwhile, THAI acting president, Somchainuk Engtrakul, has had his term extended another three months to February 10. His term was due to expire on November 10.

Somchainuk took over managerial responsibility from Kanok Abhiradee in August, shortly before the airline reported a 4.8 billion baht (US$120 million) loss for its fiscal third quarter ending June 30.

The airline expects a net profit of 10 billion baht for the 2006 fiscal year.


Austrian Air commences direct Vienna-Phuket

Phuket’s tsunami recovery has received a further shot in the arm with Austrian Airlines’ decision to commence direct scheduled flights to the island.

Austrian Airlines became the first carrier to offer such a service between Europe and Phuket since December’s tsunami when its inaugural Vienna-Phuket flight touched down last Saturday with 245 passengers on board. The flight was full.

Austrian Airlines Country Manager Thailand and Indochina, Buranut Limjitti, said in a statement: “The opening of the inaugural flight between Vienna-Phuket is our pride to keep the promise to the Tourism Authority of Thailand and people in the tsunami-affected provinces.”

Limjitti said the airline was confident of ferrying at least 40,000 European tourists to Thailand a year, generating more than €50 million (US$58.6 million, Bt.2.3 billion) for grassroots communities in the kingdom.

Reservations for flights during the December to February peak-season months were more than 90 percent full, he said. Austrian Airlines plans to increase the frequency for the route from once a week every Saturday this month to twice a week next month, after adding a Tuesday flight.

Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa director of sales, Laddawan Somniyam, welcomed the airline’s decision to fly to the island. “This will very much help Phuket’s recovery,” she said. (TTG Asia)


Don Muang may become hub for budget carriers

Don Muang International Airport may continue servicing low-cost airlines, chartered flights and private jets when Suvarnabhumi International Airport comes into operation in June next year.

Deputy Transport Minister, Mahidol Chandrangkun, announced after a meeting with the Don Muang airport committee that the decision was to avoid an instant congestion at the new airport.

He said low-cost carriers served some five million passengers per year and the figure has been increasing by ten percent annually. With low-cost airline operations, Suvarnabhumi Airport would reach its initial capacity (45 million passengers) in just four years. Without them, it would take six years.

The committee will discuss the plan for Don Muang’s utilization in detail in the next two weeks. Plans include using terminal one for low-cost carriers and chartered flights, the domestic terminal for small planes and private jets, and the second international terminal will be rented out on a short-term basis for exhibitions.

Mahidol said most low-cost airlines would prefer Don Muang to cut cost while some might opt for Suvarnabhumi for international connecting flights.

Nok Air Chief Executive Officer, Patee Sarasin, has announced recently that the airline would lobby the government to position Don Muang airport as a hub for low-cost carriers. “It will help us to cut cost and at the same time help our passengers to save traveling time and expenses,” he said. (TTG Asia)


Bangkok’s budget hotels will raise the bar: THA

Bangkok’s budget properties will set a new trend by offering deluxe products and services at lower prices, according to the Thai Hotels Association (THA).

In an address to some 400 Thai travel trade members at a seminar by the Tourism Council of Thailand in Bangkok last week, THA Vice President Prakit Chinamourphong said, “Deluxe, yet trendy in design, the low-cost hotels’ main focus is cleanliness, high security, convenient location and attracting young travelers with a short length of stay.”

He said in the next few years, Bangkok would see the opening of a number of low-cost hotels, in line with the rapid growth of low-cost airlines in the region. Some of the openings would be by international hotel chains.

Accor, for instance, has just announced three new Ibis budget hotels in Bangkok. Scheduled to open in January are the 189-room Ibis Siam Bangkok and the 288-room Ibis Huamark Bangkok. The 150-room Ibis Fenix Bangkok, located on Sukhumvit Road Soi 11 and near the Queen Sirikit National Conventional Center, is due to open late next year. (TTG Asia)


Samui makes a splash with Bt.14 billion tourism

Kasikorn Research Center estimates that the 1.1 million tourists expected to visit Koh Samui by the end of this year will inject up to Bt14 billion (US$350 million) into the local economy, a 24 percent increase in earnings compared to 2004.

Koh Samui, in the Gulf of Thailand, has emerged as a popular alternative to the tsunami-ravaged Andaman coast of Phuket and other formerly popular tourist destinations. As a result, the Kasikorn Research Centre has determined that for the whole of 2005, there will be about 1.12 million visitors, up 20 percent from 2004. Nearly 85 percent of Koh Samui’s tourists are foreigners, the research unit reports.

Nearly 800,000 foreign tourists visited Koh Samui in 2004 and their stay resulted in Bt.10 billion in spending. During the same period, some 162,000 Thai tourists spent an estimated Bt996 million.

After the tsunami struck Thailand’s Andaman coast last December, tourists headed for seaside destinations lining the Gulf of Thailand, in particular Koh Samui, Koh Chang, Hua Hin and Cha-am. (TNA)


Keeping up Khao Lak

LTU Asia Tours intends to continue promoting Khao Lak - a beach resort destination in Phang-nga province left badly scarred by last December’s tsunami - despite its inbound European market dropping off dramatically.

The company’s Bangkok-based Managing Director, Christoph Mueller, said LTU Asia Tours had an allotment of some 300 rooms per night at ten resorts in Khao Lak that was featured in its brochure last year. “This year we’re promoting only four properties, Le Meridien Khao Lak, Similana, Khao Lak Sun Set and La Flora resorts. We only have around 2,500 room nights booked for them during this high season, between November and April next year.”

Mueller said it was difficult to compare the market situation in Khao Lak pre- and post-tsunami, given room supply and higher fuel costs. The latter, he said, had resulted in more expensive airfares and hotel room rates. “However, I am confident that the inbound European market is coming back to Khao Lak.” (TTG Asia)


TAT to market new tourism clusters

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is developing seven new tourism clusters. They are: Lanna (Chiangrai, Payao, Prae and Nan), Spicy I-San (Udonthani, Khonkaen, Nongkai and Kalasin), Mythical I-San (Nakornratchasima and Ubonratchathani), Jewel Coast (Rayong, Chanthaburi and Trat), Andaman Hideaway (Phuket, Krabi, Phang-nga, Trang and Satul), Royal Paradise (Petchburi and Prachuagkirikhan) and Green Between Sea (Chumporn and Ranong).

TAT Policy and Planning Department Director, Auggaphol Brickshawana, said the clusters would provide tourists with alternatives to Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket, adding: “The seven tourism clusters will have their own brand identity and distinct travel products while sharing the same high level of tourism standardization.”

Some of the new clusters will be linked with China, Laos and Cambodia, as part of tourism promotions and developments in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. (TTG Asia)